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July2015

Umentum family to be honored at Boys of Summer tourney

July 12, 2015

Yucaipa, CA

 

ORIGINAL STORY by Bob Otto

 

Umentum family to be honored at Boys of Summer tourney

Written by Bob on July 12th, 2015

Andrew Pekarek, Press-Gazette Media (original story)

DENMARK, Wisc. – The clothesline was put to the test every summer at the Umentum household.

A collection of eight brothers and their numerous fastpitch softball uniforms made sure of it.

“It was kind of a joke when we were younger,” Dan Umentum said. “People would say stuff like, ‘Do you guys have another pair of clothes other than a uniform?’ It was usually almost every day playing for us back then.”

Burt Umentum added, “All summer if we weren’t baling hay, we were playing ball.”

The Umentums were a household name in Denmark during the heyday of the sport. It’s the reason the family will be honored at the 15th annual Boys of Summer fastpitch softball tournament.

The 12-team tournament, featuring some of the top men’s fastpitch teams in the world, begins Friday and ends with the championship game at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. In addition to the Circle Tap diamond in Denmark, games also will be held at Maribel Lions Park.

The Umentum brothers were a dominating force at many area parks during their playing days.

“You could go to just about any ballgame around the Denmark area then and you’d see an Umentum playing,” said Bill Miller, who played on teams with many of the Umentums during the 1980s and 1990s.

Marty and Tom were the two oldest brothers in the Umentum family, which also included one sister, Jeannie. Marty and Tom played in 18-and-under leagues in the area during the 1960s.

Meanwhile, the five youngest Umentum brothers started making their mark in the sport in the 1970s. Steve, Dan, Burt, Jeff and Pat were able to play on teams together for the better part of three decades, going back to the area 18U leagues in their youth to the upper-level men’s teams they competed for into their mid to late 40s.

The third-oldest Umentum brother, Mike, who couldn’t play due to a disability, watched just about every one of his younger brothers’ games.

“(Mike) was as well-known as the rest of us, even though he didn’t play,” Dan said. “He was pretty popular among the players and remembers everything about the games.”

The most memorable games for the Umentums took place in 1996, when the brothers helped Circle Tap qualify for the International Softball Congress World Tournament held in Kimberly.

“They helped fastpitch tremendously,” said Circle Tap owner Darren Derricks, who was also a teammate of the Umentums. “They played in all the (area) leagues besides tournaments, so it kept all the leagues going. They were all really good. You can’t compare them.”

A majority of the brothers pitched at some point in their career. Jeff was perhaps the best of the bunch with his delivery, which took some patience to develop.

“None of us we’re catchers, so I used to have to put a square up on the milk house,” Jeff said. “That was my strike zone. That’s how I learned to pitch.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t always hit the strike zone. There was windows right above it, those ice block windows. My dad had to put a row of concrete into it because the bottom row was all missing because when I was younger I was a little wild. I got a little scolding for that. He ended up putting brick there because he figured out I wasn’t going to quit throwing against the milk house.”

Burt is regarded as the top all-around player among the Umentum brothers. He was a standout shortstop and a member of the All-Car team that won the 1994 ISC World Championship.

Burt graduated from Denmark in 1979. He was also one of the only fastpitch players that year who wasn’t at risk of getting in trouble for playing in the title game of a Green Bay Double A Minor League championship game.

The title contest took place the day after the Denmark football team’s season-opening game. Jerry Leiterman, a Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach, didn’t want his players competing in fastpitch softball games after the football season started.

“We had to tell them not to put the game (results) in the paper so coach Leiterman wouldn’t find out,” said Mark Miller, who played with the younger Umentums.

Miller, who owns the The Bar of Appleton, is sponsoring a team at this weekend’s tournament. His father, John, was a longtime sponsor as the former owner of Circle Tap.

The Umentum brothers felt the key to their longevity together in the sport is a credit to all the sponsors they’ve had for the various teams they played for.

“None of this would have happened without the sponsors,” Jeff Umentum said. “They basically had faith in us and knew we had fun doing it, so that’s why they sponsored us. It was pretty neat because they always knew we (as brothers) could make up half a team coming to a game.”

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